Twisted trend

Published 1:00 am, Sunday, October 6, 2013

Not your father's pretzel: A sign at Wendy's touts its pretzel bacon cheese-burger. The fast-food industry has climbed aboard the pretzel bandwagon.

Not your father's pretzel: A sign at Wendy's touts its pretzel bacon cheese-burger. The fast-food industry has climbed aboard the pretzel bandwagon.

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Sonic's Cheesy Bacon Pretzel Dog.

Sonic's Cheesy Bacon Pretzel Dog.

Twisted trend

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The ancient treat of pretzels, a snack filled with more than a millennium of history and lore, are trendy once again.

At Four Kings, the bakery and sandwich shop in Universal City, pretzel rolls are the most popular baked items.

“At the time when we first started, nobody else was doing them,” said Sandra Mason, head chef and co-owner. “Now we laugh because everybody seems to be doing it.”

Seemingly, the latest wave of attention for pretzels began earlier this year, when Wendy's rolled out its Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger, and now the menu includes a Pretzel Pub Chicken Sandwich. Over the summer, Sonic introduced a Cheesy Bacon Pretzel Dog. Meanwhile, Ruby Tuesday rolled out four different pretzel burgers, Red Robin brought back its Oktoberfest Bürger served on a pretzel bun and Dunkin' Donuts introduced a Pretzel Roll Roast Beef Sandwich.

LongHorn Steakhouse features Oktoberfest Pretzel Sticks and Beer Cheese on its fall menu, Blimpie offers pretzel bread as an option for its hot grilled panini subs, and even Starbucks has a piece of the pretzel action with its Stoneground Dijon Bavarian-Style Pretzel. It has the mustard inside and a “hint of honey.”

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In 2012, 160 pretzel products debuted, up from the 60 that appeared in 2009, according to market analysis firm Mintel in a report from USA Today. The report also showed that pretzel bread has become the fast-growing sandwich bread, advancing 36 percent on sandwich menus from 2011 to 2012, according to Datassential research.

At Wendy's, the pretzel burger helped the company turn around its image, sales and stock price. An ad campaign featuring singer Nick Lachey and the hashtag #PretzelLoveSongs turned the strong seller into a pop-culture phenomenon.

The reasons for the pretzel renaissance may be as basic as nostalgia.

“You see pretzels as a kid. It's comforting and simple,” Mason said. “You don't have to put anything on it. It's just going back to that simple time.”

All this from a treat that dates to the early days of Christianity. A long-running legend holds that a medieval monk invented them in 610 A.D. in southern France or northern Italy to give as treats to children in his village who memorized their prayers. The shape came from the position of how Christians of the time prayed, with their arms folded across their chests and each hand on the opposite shoulder. The three holes represented the Trinity.

Pretzels may have even changed history. In 1510, Ottoman soldiers were tunneling under Vienna to invade, and legend has it that pretzel bakers heard them in the middle of the night and sounded an alarm. The story is likely apocryphal. Other versions of the tale have the bakers themselves defeating the invaders, and the battle is alleged to have happened in 1683 during the Battle of Vienna or in 1529 during the siege of Vienna.

Another pretzel legend: Royal couples in Switzerland used a pretzel to symbolize a nuptial bond and performed a ceremony where the bread served like a wishbone does today. It may be the origin of the phrase, “tying the knot.”

But the classic European pretzels might not be the salty ones we know today, and may be rolled in spices such as a cinnamon. Czech Republic native Denise Mazal, chef and owner of Little Gretel restaurant in Boerne, has an old German recipe for a chocolate-dipped pretzel.

“It's time consuming,” she said. “If you can keep the tradition and heritage going, that is important.”

In this area, restaurants such as Mazal's and the neighboring Dodging Duck Brewhaus in Boerne purchase their pretzels instead of making them in-house.

At Magnolia Pancake Haus, chef and owner Robert Fleming made them in-house for his summertime biergarten, Gustav's Garden.

He originally thought pretzels would be one of the easier items on his menu to make.

“I thought — how brain-dead are pretzels?” he asked. “I mean, you get them in the airport.”

He and his team made several different versions with different flours and decided on a combination of all-purpose flour and bread flour.

Fleming serves his pretzels with a hot and sweet Bavarian mustard, garlic-infused olive oil and a German cheese dip called Obazda.

Alas, he stopped Gustav's in July and plans to revive his efforts as a monthly event featuring German and Texas beers and good German food, including freshly baked pretzels. He'll announce the first date soon.

Pretzels have even found a way onto more upscale menus. The Granary 'Cue & Brew crushed them in a dessert with beer ice cream and mustard caramel. Chef and co-owner Tim Rattray said he might soon expand the use of pretzels.